


the spirit line

by inacherii



Category: Ame no Mori Kawa Umi/雨ノ森 川海, BEYOOOOONDS (Band), CHICA#TETSU, Hello! Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, F/F, major character death for obvious reasons, soul train au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-11-24 07:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20903558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inacherii/pseuds/inacherii
Summary: The train that takes you to your heart’s greatest desireTrain Conductor Ichioka Reina discovers her heart’s greatest desire whilst taking souls to the afterlife





	1. passenger no.1

The train station is completely silent.

Kurumi missed every single scheduled train up until now, at least she'd just realized while checking the board. Her phone ran out of battery so she's stuck. 

Now she's waiting for morning in a cold, quiet train station, and at least she has the vending machines to keep her hydrated. She picks a cola though, pops the cap open and feels the carbonation clear her throat. 

But for some reason she hears the rumbling of train tracks, a bright light coming from the tunnel to her right. A white train blows right past her, the wind pushes against her hoodie almost as if it was giving a warning. The train was an eerie, ebony white, completely void of any numbers, patterns, anything she'd see on a normal train. It was blank. 

A quiet jingle sounds as the doors open, the train is empty. Kurumi steps inside with her bag, something is telling her to go inside. 

The inside of the train looks normal, nothing out of the ordinary except for the lack of advertisements around the train. She shrugs and takes a seat, except the train doesn't move. Sharp gears turn as the doors close in, there's no going back for Kurumi now on the mystery train. 

The train begins to move, rumbling sounds beneath her and there's no suspicious sound anywhere. It's like any normal late-night train. But still, she still can't help but be extremely unsettled by this train. 

"Oh, hello!" 

Kurumi's head snaps to her left as she sees a woman peek out at her from another cabin, smiling. She's tall from what she can see, head to toe in white. 

"Hello, hello." The woman hurries over and sits on the seat next to her, she has a smile of gold. "I'm this train's conductor, where are you going today?"

She has to ponder before responding shakily. "Going to Roppongi Station tonight." Kurumi shivers, the air is cold. "This train stops at Roppongi, right?" 

Haughtily the woman laughs. "Yes! Glad you asked, I wouldn't want you getting lost." 

"Oh, okay great." Fiddling with the zipper of her bag she looks for a pocket warmer. "What's your name?" 

The train's four-note jingle rings again, and the doors open. The blinds were down so she couldn't tell, but it looks like it's day outside. 

_ Shiodome, Shiodome _

The station is bright, Kurumi looks beside her but the woman in white has disappeared (rude). Instead, the woman is actually in front of her, outside. She's not in white, she's wearing black. The station isn't brimming with people as it usually is, and people aren't entering the train either. It's like it isn't even there. 

The woman from before is crying, her head is down. In this moment she looks so fragile, nothing like the friendly woman she'd just met. The four-note jingle sounds again. Before the doors close, she spots a cola sitting on the bench next to her.

_ Next stop, Daimon, next stop, Daimon _

"Hey!" 

Kurumi returns back to reality when the woman's cheery voice comes back. The woman's smile and the white of her clothes had seemingly returned. "You spaced out there, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." She nervously nods, her eyebrows furrowed in obvious confusion. "So.. What's your name?"

The woman's smile gets wider. "I'm Ichioka Reina!" Reina shakes her hand almost immediately. "Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too.." Confusedly Kurumi accepts the gesture, but she's confident the woman already knows her. "Weren't you just outside?"

Reina returns the confused stare. "No, not at all. I was watching you stare off into nothing the whole time." Nonchalantly Reina adds. "Your face was very funny."

"Thanks?" She tries to understand, it's a lot to wrap her head around. First the woman is a train conductor of a train at 2 in the morning (and who even wears all white?), she can teleport, and apparently she's been staring at the door like an idiot the whole time. It's a lot to try and understand.

The song goes off in the train again. She blinks, Reina is gone again, and she couldn't even ask where the woman was from. The double-doors open again with a whoosh except she doesn't see Reina outside. It's an empty station.

Kurumi looks right, Reina isn't there.

Kurumi looks left, Reina is there.

The woman is silent, she's wearing gray now, except now she's wearing a pair of neon green headphones. Reina's expression is blank, like her clothes, yet her eyes are glassy. She's clutching on the seat beside her, she's clutching something that isn't even there.

The tone sounds again, she blinks, and the Reina with headphones is gone.

_Next stop, Azabu-juban, next stop, Azabu-juban_

"Okay, we need to talk." Kurumi starts, she's going to put the pieces together, she decides.

"Oh! What about? I have a lot to talk about, I don't get a lot of people around this time. I'd love to talk about anything!"

"Well," she starts, she's trying to be serious about this, "why do you keep disappearing every now and then?"

Reina's eyes are puzzled. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Sorry, I'm a little slow."

"You keep disappearing whenever we stop at a station." She's starting to get a little exasperated, getting desperate for answers on the mysterious, white train.

"I'm really, really sorry." The white-clad train conductor sighs, her arms crossed. "I can't really help you with this, not allowed to."

"Why?"

Reina doesn't answer.

"Why!?"

Again, silence.

Until the four-note jingle sounds again.

Reina is gone, again.

This time, the doors don't open for some reason. Kurumi walks to the blinds and looks outside but there's nothing. Just white. She turns and looks for anything out of the ordinary and finds a light blue diary, a journal. A journal with Reina's name on it, Ichioka Reina. It feels wrong to open it, it's an invasion of privacy, but she's desperate for the answers she's been searching for on this train ride. Kurumi opens the journal.

_I'm sorry._

_This is our goodbye._

The voice of the journal, no, the train speaks to her from the journal.

It's almost like a scrapbook, there are pictures of the two together, none of which Kurumi remembers. They're happy, she recognizes some of the places as some of the stations on the line. Pictures of Reina happily holding up food she recognizes from a restaurant at Daimon station. Pictures of them posing in front of Akabanebashi station. Little drawings of trains and sodas scatter the pages of the journal. There's a hole forming in Kurumi's heart that she has no idea how to fill.

The song plays again.

_Next stop, Roppongi, next stop, Roppongi _

The journal doesn't leave her hands when she blinks, the weight of it still bewilders her nerves. The door opens, it's Roppongi station. Reina doesn't appear suddenly next to her again, and she was compelled to leave the train. Kurumi leaves the journal inside the train and steps off, she looks up and meets Reina's eyes. She's not in white, black, or gray. Casual clothes, streetwear instead. Reina smiles at her and holds up her arms.

Kurumi chooses to embrace her as the world turns to white.


	2. passenger no.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> conductor's note: maybe some bullies are nice people!

It had been a really, really long time since she’d had a proper conversation with her parents. The last time it had been over how well she was doing in school, how her grades had been the best they’d ever been, how she’d been getting so many awards. Though, Rika let it get to her head, and now she was being chastised by those very people on how badly she was doing in school. Finally, Rika was really backed into a corner. 

“We can’t keep paying for your private schooling if you keep acting like this.” Her mom started, stomping around the dinner table and emphasizing her words with a slam. “We didn’t raise you to be so incompetent.” 

“Who said I was the wrong person here!” Rika pushed back her chair and yelled back to her mother, trying to defend herself from her parents. They were eating at the dinner table until the mail notice came in. Rika was just getting ready to change into her pajamas and sleep. But it was true, maybe the notice really was deserved, but she chose not to take it that way. “They’re the one sabotaging my grades! I should be able to defend myself.” 

Her mother, infuriated, spits back at her. “Doesn’t give you an excuse to act like a savage!” Rika winces. “You think bullying a little girl gives you an excuse to defend yourself?” In a way, she’s right. Rika does remember bullying the living hell out of the girl just because she needed to take her anger out on somebody, and she felt like the little girl was just an easy enough target.

“Enough.” Her father, who had been sitting in between them at the dinner table, finally butted in. But everything he says goes against whatever she says, anyway. “We’re going to take you out of the private school until we know you can behave.” 

“You can’t do that!” Rika almost shrieks, her tears starting to form in her eyes. Noise starts to develop in her head like a ticking time bomb.

“We can, now think about what you’ve done to tarnish the family name and go to your room. Now.” 

Rika doesn’t even say anything and stomps her way upstairs, tears already falling down her cheeks but she’s out of sight when she starts to meltdown. The noise in her head keeps getting louder.  
She hates it. That she’s starting to feel regret. Rika pushes down those emotions in turn for another. 

_They’re wrong. I’m right. I’m always right. _

Rika slams the door behind her and bawls, falling down dramatically to the floor and huddling herself up against the door. She hopes her weight can keep her parents from coming in to talk to her. For a while, she chooses to stay silent, she noticed her parents were still talking in the kitchen.

“—think that we raised her wrong?”

“We didn’t raise her this way.” Her father’s voice. “If she acts like this, she isn’t our child.” 

A headache begins to form in her head as she throws a nearby pencil can onto the floor out of a fit of rage. She can’t take it anymore. Rika knows it's a really stupid idea, but she’s going to prove that she can succeed without her parents. Her first step, to get to Yoyogi. From there, she can get to the shrine she needs to go to. At this point, the noise, like white noise in her head is almost unbearable. She’s going to go crazy, and maybe the shrine could help ease her.

Then from there, she doesn’t really have it all planned out. But Rika feels as though it's her first step to truly becoming the best. She starts to pack her bag with hoodies, sweats, anything practical she can get her hands on. Hell, she even takes a bunny paperweight, too. It might be some kind of good luck. She’s going tonight. 

She waits until late into the night, when her parents are asleep and at a time where it would be impossible to wake up. Sneaking out was pretty easy, she’d done it on a couple occasions, albeit not meaningful ones. 

The walk to the station is fast, she lives relatively close by. The lights are bright and in-her-face, she found Roppongi easy. Rika, in a black hoodie and white backpack, quietly walks into the quiet station, swiping her card. The noise it makes is the only sound in the entire station. Surprisingly though, it was still open. Rika took the long stairs down to the train’s platform. A train would soon come in two minutes' time. In the meantime, Rika checks her phone, makes sure nobody had called her. She deletes a couple posts that could give away what she’s done right now, it’s something she’d wanted to do for a while anyway. 

Strangely, though, the sign says 0 minutes to the next train. Then suddenly she begins to feel lightheaded until a bright flash fills her vision. For three seconds she can’t see anything but white, but when her eyes come back to her she sees a light blue train. Rika takes the gamble and boards the train anyway. It’s small and cozy, like a normal one. The seats are red, and it's kind of nice when the train isn’t crowded. 

“Hello! Welcome aboard, I’m Ichioka, the conductor on this line.” The woman is wearing white, smiling to her as if she were a friend. “And you are?” 

“Shimakura.” Rika puffs up her chest a little, the friendliness of the woman sets her off. “I hope this is connected to the Toei Line.” 

“Oh, it is. Don’t worry.” Ichioka takes a seat next to her, Rika wants to compliment her hair but her own pride holds her back. “Where are you headed? Oh! No, let me guess.” The woman ponders a bit, tapping her foot against the flooring. “The Meiji Shrine!” 

“Oh. How did you know?” Rika pretends she’s not entirely shocked, though she is. It can’t be that apparent that she wants to go to a faraway shrine by the way she’s dressed. 

“A lot of high schoolers come on board to see it. Also.” Ichioka chuckles. “I know a lot of things.” 

“Well, do you know anything about me?” She tries to pry a little, just maybe the woman knows more, or less, than what Rika expects. But before the conductor can answer, a four-note jingle rings throughout the car they’re in. 

_ Next stop, Aoyama-itchome, Next stop, Aoyama-itchome _

The conductor disappears almost as quickly as she appeared. She's too confused to question anything at all.

The door opens, but weirdly enough she doesn’t see a train station platform. Instead, she sees a schoolyard. 

“Huh! You couldn’t even get at least a ninety on the 1st-year’s math exam! You’re so stupid.” Even though she’s sitting there on the train, Rika sees herself looking down at the little girl with a high side ponytail. It looks like she’d been pushed, her knees were made dirty by the dust. 

“I’m sorry! I-I’ll get a better score next time!” 

The other Rika scoffs. “Ugh, you better. I can’t be seen talking to someone so stupid anyway.” A group of girls standing behind her, who Rika recognizes as her friends (more like followers), laughing along with Rika. “Maybe you need to be taught a lesson.” The present Rika twitches in fear, she knows what’s about to happen. The bully snatches the little girl’s bag and searches through it until she finds a little bunny figure, throwing the bag to the dirt when she’s done. “I’ll be keeping this.” 

“No! Please, you can have anything but that. My best friend gave me that before she moved away..”

“Nobody cares!” Rika holds the figure in front of her face, it doesn’t look like it will satisfy her tastes. “Maybe this will teach you a lesson, you really need it, anyway.” 

The present Rika is absorbed into the scene until the chime rings again, the doors close and the woman’s presence is made known again. She’s hallucinating, she knows it.  
“Ichioka-san?” 

“Yes?”

Rika gulps, her heart had dropped watching what she’d done. She’s angry that she even forgot it, she even has the paperweight with her at the moment. “Why am I such a bad person?”

“You can’t be that bad of a person if you want to change yourself for the better, but maybe you’re too tired. You may work yourself too hard, put yourself at too high of a standard.” Ichioka explains to her, she knows Rika is on the verge of melting down for the second time that night. She wraps an arm around her just to comfort her. “You’re a strong girl. That’s what I know about you by the way. You spaced out when I told you, so I guessed that you didn’t hear me.” 

“It can’t be that easy.” Rika sighs, burying her face in her hands. “It’s just hopeless.” 

“It isn’t easy. You don’t know until you’ve tried.” 

“I know I should try!” Almost screaming in the train she starts crying out of frustration. “But what’s the point? If I would still have nobody to come back to?” 

The conductor rubs her shoulder reassuringly. “You’ll be able to find what truly means the most to you, then.” Rika can’t see her, but she feels a warm gaze. “I know you will.”

“Really?” Her voice is shaky with nervousness and overwhelming sadness. “I really will?”

_Next stop, Kokuritsu-kyogijo, Next stop, Kokuritsu-kyogijo _

The warm presence of the conductor disappears again in a smooth, calm motion. The four-note chime rings again, and the doors open. Rika’s eyes are met with a scene in a cafe. The conductor is there with her, and so is she. The dim lighting of the cafe makes it hard for Rika to focus, but she manages to observe them. 

“Hey, Rika, did you ever find out what—”

The noise had returned. That noise. It fills her head uncontrollably like TV static. It feels like her head is getting compressed into a machine, she can’t take it she doesn’t want to. The two women in front of her are having a nice conversation over coffee, talking about small, lively things. Rika realized what she wanted, she wanted a true friendship. The noise kills her to the point where she has to lie down, she’s wincing. 

She’s in tears when the jingle hums in the train car again, shaking. The conductor reappears and suddenly Rika’s head is on her lap. But she doesn’t seem to mind, it makes her feel like she’s at home. 

“Are you okay? I think you were having a nightmare, Shimakura.” Rika, embarrassed, looks away from the conductor. 

“I think I’m okay.” She winces, the pain of the noise stays in her head a little. “I just need a little time. But can I ask something?”

“Alright. Take as much time as you need, and ask away.” 

“What do you think I’m looking for?” 

“Not for what you want. But what you need.” The conductor smiles and heavily sighs. “Think of this as a vacation.” 

_ Next stop, Yoyogi, next stop, Yoyogi _

Rika’s head falls to the cushion of the red seat, she hears the jingling ring as the doors open.

She’s surprised to see nothing, nothing at all. There’s no train platform, but it feels like what she’s been looking for all this time. 

_ Freedom _

Rika picks up her bag and slings it around her shoulder, running into the freedom she calls silence.

**Author's Note:**

> this is about the become a big project!! watch out.


End file.
